What is the Department of State?

The Department of State is the federal department responsible for foreign affairs and diplomacy, leading the United States' relationships with other countries around the world. It is the oldest executive department, created by Congress in 1789 as the Department of Foreign Affairs and renamed the Department of State a few months later. Thomas Jefferson served as the first Secretary of State from 1790 to 1793.

The Secretary of State is fourth in the line of presidential succession after the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. The department's headquarters is the Harry S. Truman Building in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and the term Foggy Bottom is often used as shorthand for State Department leadership. The State Department employs roughly 75,000 people, including foreign service officers, civil service employees, and locally hired staff at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad. It operates more than 270 diplomatic posts in nearly every country with which the United States has formal relations.

The department's responsibilities include negotiating treaties and international agreements, conducting day-to-day diplomacy with foreign governments, issuing passports to U.S. citizens and visas to foreign visitors, advising the President on foreign policy, representing the United States at the United Nations and other international organizations, and providing consular services to Americans living or traveling abroad. The Secretary of State serves as the President's chief foreign policy advisor and the principal U.S. diplomat.

Recent Secretaries of State include Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo, and Antony Blinken. The Secretary frequently meets with foreign counterparts, leads negotiations on major international issues, and oversees U.S. embassies. The State Department also runs cultural and educational exchange programs such as the Fulbright Program, supports U.S. citizens detained or in trouble abroad, and works to advance American values such as democracy and human rights through diplomatic channels. The department coordinates closely with the Department of Defense on national security matters and with the Department of the Treasury on international economic issues.